Conservative leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch started doing crazy things like praising Donald Trump, or threatening to dismantle the CBC, or talking about "Canadian values" in a way that everyone recognized as overtly racist and xenophobic. That's not what our community is about. That's not who we are.

Two decades of studies have failed to produce any smoking guns. It's now time that we all accept the scientific consensus -- GM foods are probably as safe to eat as non-GMO. But that doesn't lessen my opposition to genetic modification one bit.

Our global food system is the single biggest driver of climate change. According to an excellent analysis by GRAIN, the way we grow and transport our food accounts for about half of all the greenhouse gases produced by humans. Here are three things you can do right now to opt out of the industrial food system that threatens our global environment.

The flourishing organic farm movement in North America proves that we can grow food economically and sustainably without resorting to an accelerating chemical arms race. Systemic pesticides are causing harm to our environment on a massive scale. We don't need them. There is no conclusive evidence that systemics are harmful to humans, but we've been consuming a cocktail of different systemic chemicals for decades now, and there's been virtually no study of what that might mean for our long-term health.

We've been at it for almost 10 years, and grow about 10 acres of vegetables every season. We're absurdly tiny compared to most conventional vegetable farms, but we don't plan to get any bigger, because we're doing just fine. Our farm is debt-free, profitable and employs both of us full-time. And we're far from alone.